Dr. Dave Wintermute, a retired Air Force rocket scientist, didn’t get into magic until real
late in life. In 2003, after he retired and moved back to his initial base – Colorado Springs. He
and his son James saw the restaurant magician Bruce Black (also an Elvis impersonator and
hypnotist). His son James was intrigued by the magic and was invited to the local magic club –
the Pikes Peak Prestidigitators (Society of American Magicians #170). They enjoyed the
meetings, especially the “Teach a Trick” nights where they learned some magic.
James’ interest moved to contact juggling but his dad stayed with magic. Dave got the
Tarbell series and practiced some of the tricks, but he knew he needed a venue that would drive
him to continue and perform.
He found that venue at his local church when he asked the Sunday school teachers if they
wanted to see something unusual, related to their Sunday school lesson. They said OK and he
found tricks that related to the lesson. Each 5 minute Parlor Magic presentation ended with a
candy trick related to the lesson and this helped the class to ask for more magic the following
week.
Every weekly Sunday school class since 2003 has required a new magic presentation to
illustrate the lesson. Since most Sunday school lessons follow the church’s lectionary, they
repeat every three years. Luckily, he kept all his old scripts and grew a big library of past
performances that he can reference as he writes the next new script.